Résumé Advice

Let's be real for a second. I'm looking at lots of résumés right now for some positions, many of them recent college graduates. Understandably, not everyone is an English or Journalism major and not everyone has a degree in print layout, but the internet is a thing, and it has lots of help for those who seek it.

The point of a résumé is to represent your work, and your skills, in a coherent and functional manner. Don't throw a bunch of random icons and paint splashes to make it seem like you're "creative," those just make it harder to read. And don't forget the importance of brevity. No one has time to read a five page essay on your work history.

Not overdoing it is important, but on the other hand, put some effort into how you organize your life's work on a page. Use some paragraphs, space things out, maybe use bolded text (sparingly) for legibility. Balance is key, but it's not hard. If all else fails, use your trusted search engine, which is usually finding cat videos for you the rest of the day, and look for "résumés templates."

Someone may reach out and contact you for an actual job based on the one or two pages you send them via email. Put some thought into it. Finally, send it as a PDF if you want to be sure the receiver is going to see it as you intended. If you send a .doc, you blew it.